Meta will test blocking news for some Canadians ahead of new law

Meta will test blocking news content for some users in Canada in response to the country’s Online News Act. the company has announced, The test is expected to affect between one and five percent of the company’s users on Facebook and Instagram. According to ABC NewsAffected users are unable to view or share news content on the platform. Both Canadian and international news outlets would be affected.

If the Online News Act is passed, the tests come ahead of the permanent block. The legislation, also known as Bill C-18, is designed to force platforms such as Meta and Google to negotiate with Canadian news publishers to pay for content, but Meta has said it would rather block news content in the country than force it outright. to pay for it.

Canadian Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez Said reuters Meta’s tests were unacceptable. “When a big tech company … tells us, ‘If you don’t do this or that, I’m going to pull the plug’ — that’s a threat. I never did anything because I was afraid of the threat,” Rodríguez he said.

“All we’re asking for is Facebook to make fair deals with news outlets when they benefit from their work,” Rodriguez said. Comments reported by reuters in March, “It’s part of a disappointing trend this week that tech giants will drag news rather than pay their fair share.”

The company knows firsthand because Facebook has publicly claimed that its approach in Canada will be different from the one adopted in Australia, cbc news previously reported, “We don’t want to make the same mistakes in Canada that we made in Australia,” Rachel Curran, head of public policy for Meta Canada, told Canada’s House of Commons heritage committee last month.

Curran said, “Some of the things that accidentally went under the scope in Australia, we are working very hard to make sure we don’t do that this time.” Organization from any possible block.